A Comparative and Analytical Study for Choosing the Best Suited SDN Network Operating System for Cloud Data Center

Maiass Zaher,Sándor Molnár

doi:10.33166/aetic.2022.01.003

Abstract

The growing deployment of Software Defined Network (SDN) paradigm in the academic and commercial sectors resulted in many different Network Operating Systems (NOS). As a result, adopting the right NOS requires an analytical study of the available alternatives according to the target use case. This study aims to determine the best NOS according to the requirements of Cloud Data Center (CDC). This paper evaluates the specifications of the most common open-source NOSs. The studied features have been classified into two groups, i.e., non-functional features such as availability, scalability, ease of use, maturity, security and interoperability, and functional features, such as virtualization, fault verification and troubleshooting, packet forwarding techniques and traffic protection solutions. A Decision support system, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been applied for assessing specifications of the inspected NOSs, namely, ONOS, Opendaylight (ODL), Floodlight, Ryu, POX and Tungsten. Our investigation revealed that ODL is the most suitable NOS for CDC compared to the rest studied NOSs. However, ODL and ONOS have almost similar scores compared to the rest NOSs.

Highlights

Software Defined Network (SDN) paradigm introduces flexibility in data networks as network devices comply with Network Operating Systems (NOS) instructions by separating the control and data planes
We presented the best suited NOS to be used in Cloud Data Center (CDC) by assessing the specifications of six NOSs, according to the criteria imposed by cloud data center requirements
We classified the CDC requirements into functional and non-functional criteria based on which we inspected the specifications of the investigated NOSs

Summary

Introduction

SDN paradigm introduces flexibility in data networks as network devices comply with NOS instructions by separating the control and data planes. Switches in the data plane perform packet forwarding related functions as determined by the control plane. The so-called NOS runs on computer hardware [1], and the control plane represents the business logic in SDN paradigm as it is the controller of network functions. SDN paradigm provides a network abstraction for applications at the management plane so that the operator can efficiently perform different network tasks. The layers separation provides flexibility for introducing new solutions for problems of the traditional network paradigm. The layered architecture provided by SDN simplifies the deployment of network services and functions such as virtualization, packet forwarding, troubleshooting, etc.

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